Middle East special: The new golden age of air travel

With their in-flight showers, private cabins and chauffeur-driven BMWs to the
plane, three airlines have turned flying into a pleasure again. Graham
Boynton welcomes the latest departures
.

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Several airlines in the Middle East are making impressive inroads into the luxury flight market

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Revamped interiors show an altogether more pleasurable side to flying

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The Emirates business class lounge at Terminal 3, Dubai

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On the move: Qatar Airlines is beginning to make appearances towards the top of 'most popular airlines' polls

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The striking design of the New Doha International Airport

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Room to move: one of the ultra spacious A380 cabins now in use

By Graham Boynton

4:40PM GMT 03 Dec 2008

Gliding to a stop at Dubai International Airport, you are immediately aware of the ambition of the region’s major airlines. Lined up along the terminal is a seemingly endless row of gleaming Airbus A330s and Boeing 777s and, to add a little contemporary buzz at the end of the line, a couple of A380s – superjumbos in layman’s language. Most are in the pristine Emirates livery but a bit further on, the elegant grey and burgundy colours of Qatar adorn a handful of Airbuses.

This wide-open, modern airport is one of the hubs of Gulf growth and progress – and, to those of us who are used to the cramped, congested, overcrowded human gathering places that pass as airports in Europe and America, this is like the Elysian Fields. And, to add insult to injury, next year the move begins to an even bigger, more sophisticated airport – Al Maktoum International – that will eventually have six runways and be bigger than Heathrow and Chicago’s O’Hare airport combined .

There was a time when the best airlines in the world for service, food, entertainment and the general pleasure of flying were Far Eastern: Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Malaysia Airlines being prime examples. Now, it is this region’s carriers that have come to dominate the quality end of the market. For the sake of convenience, let’s call them Persian Gulf airlines – for they are not all of the United Arab Emirates.

Having recently flown on three of these airlines, I am prepared to stick my neck out and make a prediction: when we come out of the current credit crunch/recession/correction/whatever you want to call it, these airlines will have become the major force in international aviation. They have geography and economics on their side in that they are all based in oil-wealthy countries and they are placed at the crossroads between East and West. Their governments are developing them not only as diplomatic flag carriers but as mainstays of a booming travel industry – both business and leisure – that was simply non-existent a decade ago. And they are expanding and investing at a time when most Western airlines are announcing redundancies, route cutbacks and disinvestment.

Over the past decade, Dubai’s Emirates has become as popular as Singapore Airlines in The Daily Telegraph’s annual reader polls; Qatar is also beginning to make appearances in the top three; and Abu Dhabi’s fledgling but rapidly expanding Etihad Airways has just been voted Airline of the Year at this year’s British Travel Awards.

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Emirates’ ambitions were made clear some time ago – in July 2000 at the Farnborough Airshow – when it became the first customer for the Airbus A380. To date, it has ordered 58, which will end up costing the airline an eye-watering $18 billion (£11.5 billion) – and which represents a quarter of all the world’s superjumbos on order. Although these purchases were made long before the spectre of a global economic downturn loomed, Emirates president Tim Clark , to whom I spoke on board the inaugural Dubai-New York flight earlier this year, has no concerns about filling these giant aircraft over the coming decade. “Things have changed dramatically since 9/11,” he says. “The demand and the reason for air travel have changed. In previous recessionary times, travel was the first item to come off the expenditure list. Our research tells us that now holiday plans are the last to come off the list. There is a robustness of demand in both leisure and business.”

The airline’s ambition was made even clearer this month when it began services to America’s West Coast – three times a week to Los Angeles and three times a week to San Francisco. What this means for travellers from the Far East is that they no longer have to connect to the United States through shambolic Old World airports such as Heathrow. In fact, it is the advent of Dubai’s 24-hour, six-runway airport that British Airways’ chief executive Willie Walsh is using as a platform for his argument in favour of an additional, third runway at Heathrow. “Dubai’s plan is to become the hub that links the world’s biggest aviation market, North America, with its fastest-growing, Asia – and this link would bypass Europe altogether,” says Walsh. “If we don’t expand our national hub, [the new Dubai airport] will soon be hoovering up the business of Heathrow and the UK, year after year. With shrivelling connectivity, the position of London as a global business capital will disappear.”

However, any thoughts that the new Gulf hub-and-spoke dynamo will cut out Europe is fanciful, according to Akbar Al Baker , the charismatic and controlling CEO of Qatar Airways. He says that, with a population of 600 million, Europe “simply cannot be ignored” and his airline is, in fact, looking to increase services out of London and other major European capitals. However, he is also looking to what he describes as underserved regions of the world, notably “Africa, Latin America and large parts of China’s eastern seaboard, where there are problems with slots.” (Slots – take-off and landing places at the airport – determine when and where an airline can operate. At premier airports such as Heathrow, slots are traded as tangible assets and can be bought and sold for millions of pounds each.)

Akbar Al Baker’s major concerns, however, centre around developing the self-styled “world’s five-star airline” into the best in the business. To that end, he says, he oversees every small detail, from the livery, the uniforms of the cabin crew and the choice of meals and wines on board, all the way through to the development of Doha’s, and thus Qatar’s, new $7.2 billion airport – rather unimaginatively named the New Doha International Airport – which will open in 2011. At the moment, the airline has 64 aircraft (which already makes it much bigger than, say, Virgin Atlantic, which has 38 aircraft) but on the order books are 181 new planes, including five Airbus superjumbos and 60 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, the much-hyped eco-friendly, fuel-efficient jet of the future.

As with all the Gulf airlines, Qatar is owned by the government, a proprietor with boundless wealth, and is accused by cash-strapped and competition-dogged Western carriers of being wholly subsidised. Akbar Al Baker says it simply isn’t true. “Contrary to what Western airlines think, we do not have an oil well at the end of the runway; in fact, I have just complained to our oil minister that we are paying more for fuel in Doha than anywhere else in the world.

“The big difference is that, unlike Western airlines and airport authorities, we are not stopped in our tracks by a single 90-year-old protestor holding up development because he wants to hang on to his garden shed.” Warming to the theme, the Qatar CEO says that, if he were in charge of Heathrow, he would order the building of the controversial third runway and re-house the malcontents living around the airport – but that is easier said than done in our old Western democracies.

The Gulf’s newest luxury airline, Etihad, employs the same no-holds-barred approach to growth and development as its more established neighbours. It is just five years old, has a fleet of 38 – and, with 205 aircraft on order, the “national airline of the UAE” plans to be up there with Emirates and Qatar over the next two decades. Etihad also has a fast-growing and fast-improving airport with a second runway and a third terminal just completed, plus another huge building scheduled to be ready by 2012. At the moment, the airport serves seven million passengers and it is hoped that, by the time the new terminal comes into service, there will be 20 million passengers passing through Abu Dhabi .

Even now, increasing numbers of travellers to Dubai are using Etihad, because Abu Dhabi is a smaller and more manageable airport than Dubai International and it is only 45 minutes by road from the airport to Jumeirah Beach. That, and the fact that all Pearl and Diamond zone passengers are offered complimentary limousine transfers between Abu Dhabi and anywhere in the UAE, is making Etihad a popular choice.

As I was leaving the Gulf a few weeks ago, news came through that there had been a 2.8 per cent fall in passenger air traffic to the region – meaning the chill wind of global recession has begun to blow even in this hot, optimistic, forward-looking corner of the world. With typical brio, Al Baker brushed aside these concerns and said the current climate may work in his airline’s favour. “Whenever there is a downturn, there are opportunities,” he said. “We expanded after 9/11 and we have even better opportunities today.” So, watch this space.

The low-down on the high fliers

Emirates The region’s high-volume carrier, Emirates has 98 flights a week non-stop from Britain to Dubai, most of which are impressively full. There are five flights a day from Heathrow, three a day from Gatwick, two a day from Manchester and Birmingham and one a day from both Glasgow and Newcastle.

Economy class is pretty much as you find on most quality European airlines. However, it is the staff who make it

a more pleasant experience. Business class is good and, on both the Airbuses and the Boeing 777s, the two-three-two configuration is perfectly comfortable. First class, with its seats that massage you in mid-air, plus à la carte dining and an unsurprisingly classy wine list, is very good indeed. The entertainment system is commendable in all three classes.

Emirates’ Heathrow lounge offers excellent facilities for front-end passengers, and business- and first-class passengers are well served with the two lounges at Dubai Airport. If I do have one complaint about the Dubai end, it is that business and first class do not have a dedicated boarding procedure. That can sometimes turn the whole process into a bit of a scrum.

The bottom line Flights on Emirates (0844 800 2777, emirates.com) from London to Dubai in December cost £439 in economy, £2,276 in business and £2,863 in first class, including all taxes.

Qatar Airways Qatar Airways flies four times a day from Heathrow to Doha and once a day from Gatwick and Manchester. It does not offer complimentary limousine services for first- and business-class passengers, something that the CEO, Akbar Al Baker, dismisses as an unnecessary embellishment: “I would rather offer a better class of champagne and food than get involved in transport to and from the airport.” And superb wine they do serve, especially in first class: Chassagne-Montrachet and Château Brane-Cantenac.

At Doha, first- and business-class passengers have access to what must be the most luxurious lounge in the world – a spacious restaurant-cum-spa-cum-relaxation area. In addition, first-class passengers are transferred to the aircraft in chauffeur-driven BMWs.

In-flight, the crew are at once effortlessly courteous and efficient; the entertainment system is on-demand and comprehensive; and the cabins are spacious and well lit.

Although Qatar justifiably calls itself a five-star airline, the high quality is not confined to the front end. I have flown twice recently in economy and the same courtesies, efficiencies and style apply. Also, the design of the seats seems to offer more legroom. All in all, an outstanding airline.

The bottom line In December, flights with Qatar (0870 389 8090, qatarairways.com) from Heathrow to Doha cost £583 in economy, £1,574 in business and £2,933 in first class, including taxes.

Etihad Airways The newest of the group, Etihad currently flies six million passengers a year and operates 38 aircraft. It calls its first class Diamond, business is called Pearl and economy Coral – but, more significantly, its passengers are called “guests”: an appellation that would be pretentious on an airline that did not have Etihad’s excellent service standards. The cabin crew are effortlessly helpful, a characteristic noticeably absent on some European and North American airlines.

Etihad started out leasing aircraft but is now taking delivery every month of spanking new Airbuses designed to its own specifications. For example, in Diamond class there are no overhead luggage bins, so the cabin feels a lot more spacious. The video screens are large in all classes – at the front, they are about the size of domestic television sets – and the entertainment system is good. Etihad flies from Heathrow and Manchester and, as with its rivals, these flights out of Britain are really full . On my recent trip from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi, there were only two economy-class seats empty on a three-class Airbus A340. These are midweek load factors that other airlines would kill for.

The bottom line Fares with Etihad (0870 241 7121, etihadairways.com) from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi start at £270 in Coral class, £3,025 in Pearl and £3,775 in Diamond, including taxes.